The Philippine plans to take full advantage of a forthcoming bilateral trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association by asking for increased market access on certain agricultural products.
Trade Assistant Secretary Rodolfo Ceferino said the Philippines would request the four EFTA states—Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland—to include rice and meat in the list of commodities under the free trade agreement.
“The Philippines and EFTA recognize that both parties have sensitivities particularly in agriculture. For this reason, we do not foresee 100 percent coverage for agricultural [products]. But for Philippines, we are ensuring that the covered products include those which are of export interest to us,” Ceferino said.
He said Philippines products, including those in agriculture, were complementary in terms of types of products and prices. He noted that the four EFTA nations and the Philippines were not producing the same products.
EFTA, meanwhile, said it did not have serious concerns on intellectual property rights, although the group was wary on Philippine rules and laws on foreign ownership rules.
The Philippines identified potential exports to EFTA, such as footwear, ceramic wares, motor cars, upholstered seats, mineral or chemical fertilizers, fuel oils, cigarettes, lubricating oils and granulated sugar.
Also in the list are breakfast cereals, non-alcoholic food preparations, ground nuts, unroasted coffee, corn feeds, frozen seafoods, air conditioning units, apparels, navigational aids, telescopes, periscopes and food preparations like sauces.
Trade with EFTA is still relatively small with exports to EFTA at less than 1 percent. Investments from EFTA countries also declined to P37.81 million in 2013 from P13.81 billion in 2010.
Only 4.61 percent of EFTA investments in Southeast Asia goes to the Philippines.
EFTA imports from the Philippines are about 2.78 percent of the total from Southeast Asia.
EFTA imports from the Philippines consist of electronic integrated circuits, semiconductors, artificial teeth, fresh or chilled fish fillets, prepared or preserved tunas, pneumatic tyres, traveling bags, t-shirts, jackets, bicycles, desiccated coconut, crude coconut oil, pineapple juice, prepared or preserved pineapples and raw cane sugar.
EFTA has a combined gross domestic product of $1.22 trillion and an average gross domestic product per capita of $91,928 and a population of just 13.52 million.
The ongoing bilateral negotiations with EFTA are part of the Philippine European strategy to maximize availment of the European Union generalized system of preferences plus.